Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCataclysm Class Changes: Warrior
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 8th 2010 at 12:01PM
Some of the major highlights:
- Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time.
- Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks.
- It's baaack! Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land.
- "...we're planning to try out a talent called Single-Minded Fury that is parallel to Titan's Grip and will provide a large boost to the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons."
Warrior PreviewWorld of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the warrior. The information you're about to read is not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview for some of the exciting new things to come.
New Warrior Abilities
Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won't need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don't want warriors to feel like they're supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we'll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed.
Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target.
Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
In addition to learning new abilities, you'll see changes to other abilities and mechanics with which you're already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.
New Talents and Talent Changes
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Arms
Melee Damage
Armor Penetration
Bonus Swing
Fury
Melee Damage
Melee Haste
Enrage Intensity
Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Critical Block Chance
Bonus Swing: This is similar to the Sword Specialization talent that is currently in the game, but Bonus Swing will work on all attacks and with all weapons. You have a chance to proc a free, instant weapon swing that hits for 50% damage.
Enrage Intensity: Every benefit of being enraged is increased. This includes doing more damage/healing/ etc. from abilities like Bloodrage, Death Wish, Enrage, Berserker Rage, and Enraged Regeneration.
Critical Block Chance: As we mentioned in the stat changes preview, block rating is changing to a chance to block 30% of a melee swing's damage. Protection warriors have a chance that the block will be a critical block and block for 60% of a melee swing's damage instead. There will likely be talents available to push the amount blocked even higher.
Vengeance
We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.
New Warrior Abilities
Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won't need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don't want warriors to feel like they're supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we'll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed.
Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target.
Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.
Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
In addition to learning new abilities, you'll see changes to other abilities and mechanics with which you're already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.
- Heroic Strike will no longer be an "on next swing" attack, as we are removing this mechanic in Cataclysm. To keep the niche of Heroic Strike as a Rage dump, it will become an instant attack, but will cost between 10 and 30 Rage. This ability will not be usable until you have 10 Rage, but if you have more than 10, it will consume up to 30, adding additional damage for each point of Rage consumed above the base 10. Other abilities, such as Cleave, Execute, and Maul (for druids) will work similarly. The goal is to provide players with an option where if you can't afford the Rage, you don't push the button, but if you have excess Rage, you can push it a lot.
- Battle Shout, Commanding Shout, and possibly Demoralizing Shout will work more like the death knight's Horn of Winter ability. Specifically, these shouts will cost no resources, generate rage in addition to their current effects, and be on a short cooldown.
- Whirlwind will hit an unlimited number of targets, but only for 50% of weapon damage. The intent is for this ability to be used in multi-target scenarios and not on single targets.
- Overall, heals cast by players in Cataclysm will be a lower number relative to players' health than the current game. So to make the Mortal Strike debuff less mandatory but still useful in PvP, Mortal Strike will reduce healing by only 20%. All equivalent debuffs, including the Shadow priest and Frost mage debuffs, will be for 20% less healing. At the moment we aren't considering giving this debuff to anyone else, though we will certainly consider PvP utility for historically under-represented specs that use other mechanics.
- Sunder Armor will be reduced to three stacks instead of five, and still provide only a 4% reduction in armor per stack. We want to make this debuff easier to apply and less of a damage swing when it falls off.
New Talents and Talent Changes
- The Furious Sundering talent in the Fury tree will make the Sunder Armor ability cause 25/50% weapon damage and reduce the threat generated by 50/100%.
- The Mace and Poleaxe Specialization talents in the Arms tree will be removed. These provided just passive stats, which are not the kinds of talents we want to design in the future. We will keep the Sword Specialization talent, but it will be changed to a talent that applies to all types of weapons.
- As a Fury talent, Booming Voice will increase the Rage generated by shouts.
- While we like how Titan's Grip plays, we recognize some warriors liked the Fury tree because of the really fast swings that dual-wielding one-handed weapons could provide. Therefore, we're planning to try out a talent called Single-Minded Fury that is parallel to Titan's Grip and will provide a large boost to the damage of a pair of one-handed weapons.
- Several talents that reduce the Rage cost of abilities will be changed to focus on increased damage for those abilities instead.
- The new Arms talent called Disarming Nature will make successful disarms cause the target to cower in fear for 5/10 seconds.
- Another new Arms talent called Blitz will make the Charge ability hit for extra damage. The amount will possibly vary depending on the distance travelled.
- Improved Pummel, a Fury talent, will cause a successful interrupt to generate 10/20 Rage.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Arms
Melee Damage
Armor Penetration
Bonus Swing
Fury
Melee Damage
Melee Haste
Enrage Intensity
Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Critical Block Chance
Bonus Swing: This is similar to the Sword Specialization talent that is currently in the game, but Bonus Swing will work on all attacks and with all weapons. You have a chance to proc a free, instant weapon swing that hits for 50% damage.
Enrage Intensity: Every benefit of being enraged is increased. This includes doing more damage/healing/ etc. from abilities like Bloodrage, Death Wish, Enrage, Berserker Rage, and Enraged Regeneration.
Critical Block Chance: As we mentioned in the stat changes preview, block rating is changing to a chance to block 30% of a melee swing's damage. Protection warriors have a chance that the block will be a critical block and block for 60% of a melee swing's damage instead. There will likely be talents available to push the amount blocked even higher.
Vengeance
We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.
Ghostcrawler"All equivalent debuffs" means if you have the debuff today, you will have it in Cataclysm, but at 20% healing received. To avoid further confusion, we are talking about Mortal Strike, Furious Strikes, Wound Poison, Aimed Shot, Permafrost and Improved Mind Blast.
We are also strongly considering having all of these effect cause the same debuff, called Mortal Wounds, which is a physical effect and therefore undispellable. This allows the behavior to be more consistent regardless of who is applying it and lets us consider things like how easy it should be to dispel poisons (since Mortal Wounds would not be affected).
Heals will be smaller and health pools will be larger in Cataclysm, so we don't expect Mortal Wounds to feel as mandatory as it does today, but this is clearly the kind of thing that will require a lot of playtesting and feedback.
--
Almost all dots will crit. The exception will be things like Deep Wounds and Ignite because those are already the product of a crit. Rend will crit.
We are really striving for scaling parity for the various specs and classes. This means that stats like haste and crit can't be awesome for some characters and terrible for others. Most abilities need to benefit from haste and crit.
We are also strongly considering having all of these effect cause the same debuff, called Mortal Wounds, which is a physical effect and therefore undispellable. This allows the behavior to be more consistent regardless of who is applying it and lets us consider things like how easy it should be to dispel poisons (since Mortal Wounds would not be affected).
Heals will be smaller and health pools will be larger in Cataclysm, so we don't expect Mortal Wounds to feel as mandatory as it does today, but this is clearly the kind of thing that will require a lot of playtesting and feedback.
--
Almost all dots will crit. The exception will be things like Deep Wounds and Ignite because those are already the product of a crit. Rend will crit.
We are really striving for scaling parity for the various specs and classes. This means that stats like haste and crit can't be awesome for some characters and terrible for others. Most abilities need to benefit from haste and crit.
In addition to commenting, don't forget that we're also looking for guest posts on the above changes.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 9)
nikdaheratik Apr 8th 2010 1:47PM
l2 reading comprehension:
"This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land."
Do warriors in berserker stance do Thunder Clap?
Didn't think so...
Just stance dance if it's that important for you to do a leap in the air at that particular moment.
thebitterfig Apr 8th 2010 12:49PM
the sunder changes, particularly for fury, are epic and amazing. also makes me hope that a new glyph of devastate will do something cool.
Eg Apr 8th 2010 12:51PM
Couldn't make it through the whole thing... my pants keep Heroic Leaping when I get to the part about Heroic Leaping.
lilrio Apr 8th 2010 12:53PM
oh yay a few good things but most of that news is not very intresting overall we get nerfed again that whirlwind nerf like cmon way to mess up are fury rotation blizz thanks
Superthrust Apr 8th 2010 12:52PM
BRB, Leveling my paladin because it seems like they are killing warrior tanking.
Nina Katarina Apr 8th 2010 12:53PM
Ghostcrawler added some information:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q u o t e:
Instead of Gushing Wounds, I wouldn't mind having our bleeds "crit" like other class DoT's and have some sort of skill that lets you spread your bleed effects, kinda like the DK's pestilence ability.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Almost all dots will crit. The exception will be things like Deep Wounds and Ignite because those are already the product of a crit. Rend will crit.
We are really striving for scaling parity for the various specs and classes. This means that stats like haste and crit can't be awesome for some characters and terrible for others. Most abilities need to benefit from haste and crit.
Ruiv Apr 8th 2010 12:56PM
People complaining about the Mortal Strike nerf didnt notice the Gushing Wound. You can be closer from those healing classes and do more damage.
If you run to heal = die
If you stay and try to heal = die
This skill puts the 30% out of question...
Anyway, not anybody was talking about the Less threat talent = AWESOME!! The best dps on my guild is a warrior (and so do I) but he often dies because he cause so much aggro and not all tanks can handle that.
Also sunder armor as fury and the Vegeance are superb...
Eldoron Apr 8th 2010 1:00PM
DPS also have threat meters though, and dead DPS does zero dps, so they should know when to hold back not to steal aggro. IMHO.
Mephistophelean Apr 8th 2010 1:02PM
People are looking into Gushing Wounds too much. Blizzard said at one stack it will hit weaker than rend, but at three it hits harder. By law of averages that means at two stacks it will hit just as hard as rend. If it only stacks to three it's not going to kill them. It doesn't do damage everytime they take a step. It's a DoT that stacks when they move but still has a time variable like Rend does. Yes, I agree I will be using this more than Rend but it isn't going to be making a massive difference as everyone expects.
Ruiv Apr 8th 2010 1:05PM
Yes you are right, but if they are putting that Inner Rage (which means more damage... and 15% is a lot of damage) you need to generate less threat while dps.
GrumblyStuff Apr 8th 2010 1:07PM
Uh.. I'm pretty sure that 100% threat reduction is only for the sunder effect and not, say, your total threat. Maybe for the damage component too but I highly doubt it.
Mephistophelean Apr 8th 2010 1:07PM
"Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target"
This isn't a godsend skill. At one stack it is weaker than Rend, at three it's stronger. By law of averages two stacks is just as strong as Rend is. Yes, I agree this is way better than Rend is but it's not as great as people are making it out to be. Maybe they are reading it wrong. It's going to add a stack, up to three, everytime the opponent moves. BUT it's still going to be on a time variable like Rend is, not 'look he takes damage every step he makes.' Putting Gushing Wounds on a ranged/healing class isn't going to make them stay and get pummeled in the face anymore than they are doing now.
Ruiv Apr 8th 2010 1:12PM
Good point...
Im wondering if Death Grip will trigger this Gushing Wound
@GrumblyStuff - yeah... i was stunned and over readed it. thank you
Mephistophelean Apr 8th 2010 1:16PM
I'm just hoping Blizzard doesn't make Warriors completely useless in PvP. I have literally played every toon at 80, save for a Hunter, and I have to say I've had the most fun with the Warrior. I don't want to have to gear up another one of my less fun characters to play, but I will if it becomes too bad. At this point a lot is still subject to change, hopefully Blizzard makes the right choices on what to nerf. I agree that Mortal Strikes needs to be nerfed, but putting it on the same level as a Frost Mage and Shadow Priest's heal reduction takes away their uniqueness in arena. They seem to be steering into the anti-kite direction rather than heal cleaving. But with anti-kite we're going to have to probably roll double DPS in 2's. Blizzard did say that Enraged Regeneration is getting an increase, let's hope that it's good enough to be able to be viable in arena without a healer. ( I think ER is fine as it is but lower the cooldown to 1.5 minutes like Bladestorm )
Triiangle Apr 8th 2010 12:59PM
Hmm I wonder if I'll switch I guess ill figure out as soon as I see the dk changes. But all this sounds great.
Unkle G Apr 8th 2010 2:18PM
Warriors:
Prot = Huzzah! Vengeance sounds boss. Breath of fresh air for a class that's had it's nose shoved in the armpit of a paladin or druid for a year or so.
Arms = hmmm... gonna have to try it. The loss of specializations gives me pause, there goes 5% crit out the window :-/ and they're keeping the one spec that nobody uses (because it kinda sucks) ? I might just dual-spec Prot for this expansion.
Fury = I don't really do fury much. As a tank however, any threat mitigation you wanna throw at a Fury Warrior, I will be happy about. ;P
Heroic Leap sounds like a lot of fun.
UnkleG - Balnazaar
tuskalo Apr 8th 2010 1:31PM
Well, heroic leap is back! hooray for that! I may have to switch to arms unless fury gets a new talent so that we can use heroic leap in berserker stance.
The change to whirlwind is slightly annoying and it will be interesting to see how the other changes play out to keep it balanced.
All in all it looks exciting and for everyone currently QQing, please remember that this is only the changes for the BETA. This is not necessarily final and there will most likely be more changes than the ones here. Please, I know how as warriors, its hard to do anything that doesn't cause us to get pissed but try to be patient and see what else happens.
Zhiva Apr 8th 2010 1:11PM
Why don't they just merge Heroic Strike and Execute?
GerardthePriest Apr 8th 2010 1:13PM
I can haz Arms interrupt? Please? (Not that anyone plays Arms in PvE right now, but it'd be nice if it ever becomes a serious option again.)
Valt Apr 8th 2010 1:22PM
You can see rest of the cataclysm changes for classes on ICC actually.
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=38410
Warriors have leap, warlocks green fire, shamans healing rain.
Paladins will get http://www.wowhead.com/spell=71953 in cataclysm? It really seems so.. so far most of the clone spells have been announced for classes they are copies of.